Nida

Nida trained in Thailand and has been working with her hands for fifteen years. She now practises from a single treatment room in Wimbotsham, a village a mile north of Downham Market, where the diary runs seven days a week and most of the names in it are people who have been coming for a while.

She is not a chain and there is no reception. What that means in practice is that the person who takes your booking is the person who does the treatment, and she remembers what your shoulder was doing last time.

How she works

Every appointment starts with a short conversation rather than straight onto the table. Where it is tight, how firm you want it, anywhere to leave alone. She checks the pressure as she goes and adjusts, which sounds obvious and is not what most people are used to.

Her regulars book deep tissue, and the reviews say why: she finds the thing they came in with rather than running the same routine over everybody. Her first-timers usually book the relaxing massage, and then come back for the herbal compress, because nobody expects that one.

The room

One room, set up properly. A steamer for the herbal compresses, a heater for the stones, and enough towels that nothing has to be rushed. There is free off-road parking directly outside, which is rarer than it sounds for a massage business in this part of Norfolk — most of them are on a high street where you are hunting for a space before you have even started to relax.

Languages

Nida speaks English and Thai.